10/27/1999 @ 12:00AM

Q & A with Marc Andreessen

Netscape Communications cofounder Marc Andreessen played his business hand close to the vest on Tuesday when he announced the formation of his new startup company, Loudcloud. Aside from naming a management team, he gave no details about the business, other than to say it plans to help Internet companies navigate the complexities of e-commerce.

However, the Internet wunderkind was pretty forthcoming in a question-and-answer session during which he discussed Netscape, his reason for leaving America Online and why he’d rather be a chairman than a CEO.

Forbes.com: You started out as a software programmer–got your degree in computer science. Yet for most of your career, you’ve been involved in corporate strategy, not writing code. And that seems to be the direction you’re taking at Loudcloud. Do you miss working with pure technology and do you ever think you’ll do it again?

Marc Andreessen: I miss it sometimes, but at Netscape, and then AOL, I really got into the idea of growing businesses. It’s a question of leverage. As a programmer, no matter how talented you are, you can only have a finite impact. But when you’re harnessing the mass of a company, you can get much more impact. And I love building and being a part of teams.

Forbes.com: There’s been a lot of talk about how you never really got comfortable working at AOL–which Netscape engineers used to refer to as the McDonald’s of cyberspace.

Did you in fact have a hard time working with Steve Case and Bob Pittman, or did you just get bored?

Andreessen: Actually it was fine. I had a good time at AOL and I learned a lot.

They’re a great group of people, and they really know what they’re doing. But I’d been doing this big company thing long enough. I knew I needed to change my role at AOL because I wanted to be involved in startups, and AOL needed a full-time CTO.

Forbes.com: At Loudcloud, you have a chance to build a new company–much as you and Jim Clark built Netscape. What did you learn at Netscape that can help guide the new company, and maybe keep it from falling into the kind of mistakes that really hurt Netscape.

Andreessen: When I started Netscape I was brand new out of college and all the aspects of building a business, like balance sheets and hiring people, were new to me. So I learned as much as I could from Jim (Clark), and then from Jim Barksdale (Netscape’s CEO). This time around I have an understanding of what the landscape is, and I’m better at knowing how fast to grow the business, because it’s hard to gauge whether you’re going too fast or not fast enough.

Forbes.com: Five years ago, Netscape began shipping its first products. When you look around today, could you have envisioned back then the extraordinary growth of the Internet, and the impact it would have on society?

Andreessen: I think you could have forecast the numbers, but the impact on our lives and businesses, that’s just been overwhelming for just about everyone. When we started Netscape, most people still thought interactive TV was the way of the future. But whoops, look what happened to that.

Forbes.com: It’s interesting that you didn’t want to be CEO of Loudcloud. That suggests that you prefer to be on the sidelines rather than suffer the day-to-day hassles of running the company. What’s your thinking on that?

Andreessen: Being a CEO is a very, very difficult job, and it’s almost a personality hard-wiring issue. Not that many people are suited for it, and I’m not sure I am. Besides, Ben (Loudcloud CEO Ben Horowitz) is one of the best managers I’ve ever seen.

He inspires tremendous loyalty, and I just want to help him build the team.

Forbes.com:The Microsoft antitrust trial is nearly over. Any thoughts about what the outcome might be? And would you personally like to see the company broken up?

Andreessen: Well, we’ll probably end up partnering with Microsoft in the future (so don’t put me on the spot). The trial has been run well by the judge, the defense and the prosecution. If you read the transcripts, all the right questions have been asked by all of the parties. I may or may not agree with the outcome, but it does seem that the system is working.

Forbes.com: You’ve been out of the direct spotlight for a while, but with your new company, you’re about to jump back into it. Do you relish the idea of dealing with the publicity?

Andreessen: I’m kind of ambivalent about it. If it’s useful for the company, fine, but of course there’s a downside to it. It’s not something I would go after for itself.

Forbes.com: Do you foresee getting personally involved in another company in the near future?

Andreessen: I might do some outside investing or join a board or two, but from an operational standpoint, Loudcloud is a very significant commitment for me.

Forbes.com: The initial funding for the new company is coming from the founders, including you. But there’s little doubt that venture capitalists will be banging down your door. What’s ahead for Loudcloud in terms of financing? And is Jim Clark going to become an investor?

Andreessen: We will raise money at some point, but there are a lot of different ways to raise money. And, no, we don’t have any commitment from Clark.

Forbes.com: If Loudcloud succeeds, it could add to your image as an Internet visionary. But if it fails, you could go down as a one-hit wonder. Does that concern you?

Andreessen: If we succeed, then the entire team will get the credit, because at the end of the day, I’m only contributing a small fraction. And if it fails, well, that’s the great thing about the Valley. You always get another chance.